Welcome to the World's First Great Big Vegetable Challenge! Six years ago we went on a vegetable journey of a lifetime. A 7 year year old boy named Freddie and his mother faced up to the challenge of turning him from a Vegetable-Phobic into a boy who will eat and even enjoy some of life's leafier pleasures. We ate through the alphabet of vegetables...and returned to tell the tale. Join our Great Big Veg Challenge!

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

101 uses for a dead sprout

The cartoonist Simon Bond created the cartoon series "101 uses for a dead cat". I need 101 uses for a dead brussel sprout. We have avoided it for too long, it is in season, its Christmas and so its B for Brussel sprouts.

Please leave your recipes here. This will be a particuarly hard GreatBigVegChallenge. Freddie is bracing himself -gag reflex at the ready.

8 comments:

Everyone loves bubble and squeak which is made from fried cabbage so just do the same with sprouts. Fry them with bacon or garlic or onions or potatoes or any combination of these. They stay crunchy and tasty rather than becoming a school-dinner style mush.

Mash up some potato up and mash in some finely chopped sprouts, maybe add fish and make sprouty fishcakes - of course leave the 'sprouty' bit out of the description!! maybe home-made vegeburgers with sprouts mixed in!!

I lurve sprouts, I think they are the best veg ever.We have them par boiled and then dunked in iced water to stop them cooking, then fry some bacon, garlic and shallots add the sprouts and sautee for couple of mins then add some reisling and allow to reduce rapidly untill most of the liquid is gone and the sprouts should be just right. or par boil angian the sautee with chesnuts, thats nice too.

When faced with a challenging veg, I find that if I involve the kids in choosing & cooking it, I can drum up a bit more excitement and they'll be more likely to try it, maybe the blog is doing that for you already.

This year we were lucky enough to find a few brussel sprout plants growing in our new garden, the kids found it very exciting to pick and eat their own veg and my little girl said that the lightly boiled brussel sprouts were "very juicy".Last year we convinced them (and me) to eat sprouts by shredding them and lightly frying them in Extra Virgin Olive Oil, with garlic & chestnuts, tossed with pasta and Parmesan. We're veggie but I'm sure a bit of bacon would help and maybe a little chilli (our kids still can't deal with hot food). I also think that something like Chestnut Gnocchi with Sour Cranberries and Sprouts could work really well for kids, it's colourful, tangy, full of interesting flavours and is far enough removed from the soggy sprouts image to be appealing.

It may not be any consolation right now - but as a child I loathed sprouts, but my mum made my sister and I eat one (1) each, each Christmas and every wintry Sunday when they were on the menu.

Nowadays my sister and I polish off dishes full of the small green spheres of evilness with great relish! I think some things, like sprouts, red wine and blue cheese, the appreciation of flavours comes with maturity!

PS we are 43 and and 39 so it can be a long wait until one's children appreciate the finer things in life - my child is nearing 20 and still hates sprouts, but I live in hope!

Use lightly cooked cold sprouts, chopped into nice pieces (or leave whole for a more dynamic plateful)and dress with a light rice vinegar and soy sauce wash. Decorate with a sliced chili and a black olive. You can see the finished dish here